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M
micas
October 8, 2021
Question

Extremely slow performance building an interface

  • October 8, 2021
  • 9 replies
  • 0 views

Hello everyone,

All of my interfaces start to suffer after ~1,000 - 1,500 lines of code or more. By 'suffer' I mean... It becomes extremely unbearable to design an interface in either 'design mode' or 'expression mode.' When I click on a component, or try to go from 'design' to 'expression' modes, saving, checking performance - basically every imaginable action I try to perform is delayed by 10+ seconds. I don't think this is a client side issue. I have 2 other teammates on my team facing similar issues and we all have good internet, using Chrome, etc.

When clicking and waiting 10-15seconds for the 'performance' screen to load, it does show that the interface is decent performing, but when designing it... it is abysmal. 

Here is copy/paste of all the components on my interface:

FunctionSortable column, activate to sort ascending
CountSortable column, activate to sort ascending
Total Time (ms)Sortable column, sorted descending, activate to sort ascending
PercentSortable column, activate to sort ascending
Minimum Time (ms)Sortable column, activate to sort ascending
Maximum Time (ms)Sortable column, activate to sort ascending

a!sidebysidelayout

18

52

38.95%

2

5

a!textfield

27

13

9.74%

< 1

1

a!dropdownField

9

12

8.81%

1

5

a!columnslayout

45

9

6.67%

< 1

1

a!columnlayout

24

5

3.43%

< 1

< 1

a!buttonwidget

5

4

2.66%

1

1

a!sidebysideitem

39

3

2.36%

< 1

< 1

a!sectionLayout

2

3

2.12%

1

1

a!richTextItem

2

3

1.86%

1

1

a!checkboxfield

3

2

1.20%

< 1

1

a!ispagewidth

9

2

1.17%

< 1

< 1

a!richtextdisplayfield

3

1

0.64%

< 1

< 1

a!buttonarraylayout

4

1

0.59%

< 1

< 1

a!dynamiclink

2

< 1

0.31%

< 1

< 1

a!linkfield

2

< 1

0.08%

< 1

< 1

fn!if

13

< 1

0.02%

< 1

< 1

fn!not

3

< 1

0.02%

< 1

< 1

fn!choose

1

< 1

0.01%

< 1

< 1

Shows 135 ms performance, but I'm literally incapable of designing it any further do to GUI lag/performance issues in design/expression mode.

What am I doing wrong?

    9 replies

    M
    micasAuthor
    October 8, 2021

    For the sake of testing - I removed a lot of column layouts and put all my components within just a handful of column layouts, as well as a bunch of other components. 200-something components down to 121 components, but I am still experiencing nearly 10 second load times when performing actions. 

    FunctionSortable column, activate to sort ascending
    CountSortable column, activate to sort ascending
    Total Time (ms)Sortable column, sorted descending, activate to sort ascending
    PercentSortable column, activate to sort ascending
    Minimum Time (ms)Sortable column, activate to sort ascending
    Maximum Time (ms)Sortable column, activate to sort ascending

    a!sidebysidelayout

    36

    38

    45.64%

    < 1

    4

    a!textfield

    18

    9

    10.86%

    < 1

    1

    a!dropdownField

    6

    6

    7.54%

    1

    1

    a!buttonwidget

    5

    4

    4.33%

    1

    1

    a!sectionLayout

    2

    3

    3.29%

    1

    1

    a!sidebysideitem

    26

    2

    2.63%

    < 1

    < 1

    a!columnslayout

    2

    2

    1.99%

    1

    1

    a!richTextItem

    1

    2

    1.88%

    2

    2

    a!columnlayout

    4

    1

    1.44%

    < 1

    < 1

    a!ispagewidth

    2

    1

    1.25%

    < 1

    1

    a!buttonarraylayout

    4

    1

    1.01%

    < 1

    < 1

    a!richtextdisplayfield

    2

    1

    0.71%

    < 1

    < 1

    a!checkboxfield

    1

    1

    0.61%

    1

    1

    a!dynamiclink

    2

    < 1

    0.45%

    < 1

    < 1

    a!linkfield

    2

    < 1

    0.16%

    < 1

    < 1

    fn!not

    2

    < 1

    0.04%

    < 1

    < 1

    fn!if

    5

    < 1

    0.02%

    < 1

    < 1

    fn!choose

    1

    < 1

    0.01%

    < 1

    < 1
    M
    micasAuthor
    October 8, 2021

    For the sake of testing - I went and removed most of my column layouts and condensed components into only a handful of column layouts and I instituted using more side-by-side components. As a result I knock down my total component count from 211 to 121. I am still experiencing significant lag while trying to develop. 

    a!sidebysidelayout 36 38 45.64% < 1 4
    a!textfield 18 9 10.86% < 1 1
    a!dropdownField 6 6 7.54% 1 1
    a!buttonwidget 5 4 4.33% 1 1
    a!sectionLayout 2 3 3.29% 1 1
    a!sidebysideitem 26 2 2.63% < 1 < 1
    a!columnslayout 2 2 1.99% 1 1
    a!richTextItem 1 2 1.88% 2 2
    a!columnlayout 4 1 1.44% < 1 < 1
    a!ispagewidth 2 1 1.25% < 1 1
    a!buttonarraylayout 4 1 1.01% < 1 < 1
    a!richtextdisplayfield 2 1 0.71% < 1 < 1
    a!checkboxfield 1 1 0.61% 1 1
    a!dynamiclink 2 < 1 0.45% < 1 < 1
    a!linkfield 2 < 1 0.16% < 1 < 1
    fn!not 2 < 1 0.04% < 1 < 1
    fn!if 5 < 1 0.02% < 1 < 1
    fn!choose 1 < 1 0.01% < 1 < 1

    The code also went from 3500 lines to ~2000 lines.

    csteward
    csteward
    October 9, 2021

    Are you on premise / any system administrators to review performance?

    Typically I only see this type of performance hit when slow a!queryEntity() calls are involved.

    I'm not sure if I have too much to provide here, other than suggesting you break your large forms down into smaller interfaces, then reference them together from one parent interface.  

    M
    micasAuthor
    October 11, 2021

    The environment is not on-premise. If the latter part of your message is true, then this concerns me. We literally have thousands of fields worth of 'forms' we need to build (intense process driven/data capture driven stuff over here). What's concerning is the fact that if the second part of your statement is true/best practice, to build many interfaces and compile them together, then my main concern is having hundreds of interfaces interlaced together and the chaos involved in managing all the objects. 

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